Telling the ECSA Story

Lucia Francisco had two clear priorities in the aftermath of Cyclone Idai: “For me and my community I would like to receive food and shelter. The food will help us be strong so we can rebuild our houses and lives.” So that’s what CARE does—helps people rebuild houses and lives all over the world. CARE’s Emergency Shelter Team provides technical expertise in emergency shelter and reconstruction. Cyclone Idai dominated the Shelter Team’s humanitarian response during the financial year July 2018 - June 2019. During that period, the Shelter Team also provided comprehensive technical assistance to CARE’s shelter and camp management activities in Cox’s Bazar Rohingya refugee settlement in Bangladesh - which remains the largest refugee camp in the world - as well as supporting emergency responses in Lebanon, Nepal, Turkey, Uganda, Vanuatu. What have we accomplished? 73 projects  implemented around the world with a shelter and housing component. Two projects involved camp coordination an

If you go to many schools in poor countries or refugee camps, you will see kids washing their hands like they are scrubbing in for surgery. They are much more thorough than most Americans, where apparently  69% of men  don’t wash their hands. What makes kids in crisis so smart about handwashing? Why are they following the  best practice guidelines  for how to wash your hands, even when running water is scarce? They understand that it could save their lives. As we’re all learning, handwashing is one of the best defenses we have against all kinds of diseases (including COVID-19) better than  wearing gloves . It’s the  top tip WHO offers  for slowing the spread of the virus. It saves lives all over the world. But  a lot of people still don’t do it , even with the best access to resources, running water, and information. So how do we make it possible for more people? How do you get people who have little access to running water or soap to prioritize washing their hands? CARE works al

Everything about the news on  COVID 19  is scary. We don’t know yet what the long-term impacts will be. We don’t know how long it will last. What we do know, from decades of responding to epidemics in some of the poorest and most fragile contexts, is that  hope is possible.  The only way through is together. Take the experience of one Ebola survivor who was part of CARE’s programs. “ When I was discharged they (the community) did not drive me away. They talked to me fine and accepted me and encouraged me  that made me get courage . They touched me, they came to greet me and prepared fine pepper soup for me. ” Between 2015 and 2019, CARE has run 57 projects that aimed to stop the spread of infectious disease epidemics—like Ebola, cholera, and zika—in 20 countries around the world. These projects collectively worked with 9 million people directly and 16.7 million indirectly. A variety of donors contributed to these responses, for a total of $146.3 million. These responses prove that t

“I am a transformed man; I want to be exemplary in my community.... I teach my son every day to support the women and girls in our lives because our family’s success depends on it.” In July 2018, CARE International in Uganda conducted a case study, funded by ECHO, on how an Engaging Men and Boys approach can be used in a refugee context. The Role Model Men approach is usually implemented as development, spanning several years. However, CARE wanted to learn more deeply how this can work in a refugee setting, building upon previous experience from ECHO and UNFPA funded projects. CARE International in Uganda has been engaging in the Role Model Men approach since 2010, first focusing on the post-conflict environment.  In total, CARE has trained 1,105 RMM&Bs across the West Nile region who have mentored over 11,050 men and boys in over 8 projects. The case study indicated positive changes in the lives of Role Model Men, their families, and community members. This includes a change in

International Women’s Day 2020 – REMARKS  Rosalind Crowther, CD, South Sudan 11/03/2020 Undersecretary of the Ministry of Gender, Honourable Angelina Teny, representatives of Government, Donors, Women-Peace&Security WG, UNWOMEN, GBVSub-Cluster, WLOs, and Civil society, Welcome and Thank you for the opportunity to speak on behalf of CARE International.  A Special Thank you to the Government of Canada for supporting this event. •Today we come together to mark International Women’s Day and seize the moment to advance gender equality in South Sudan. The international theme for this year is “I am generation equality: realizing women’s rights”. o Gender equality means creating a conducive environment for women & girls so that they can enjoy equal rights and opportunities, and o CARE is committed to putting women & girls Front and Centre of all our programming in SS. o Our mandate, ‘fighting Poverty, defending dignity’, compels us to promote gender equality and ri

I lost three of my brothers during the cyclone last year. It was a Thursday. I was living with them and my oldest brother on the outskirts of Beira, who supported me so that I was able to go to school. My teacher that morning said that a big storm was coming but we didn’t believe him at first because we saw no signs. But in the evening I woke up from the noise of the wind. It was so strong, it blew our roof away. I was very scared. A big tree in front of our house fell against our wall and my brothers rushed to the cabinets resting against that wall to take out bags and folders with important certificates and documents. That’s when the whole wall collapsed on them. One of the stones hit my head. I still remember seeing the cracks in the wall moments before my brothers were buried in  the rubble. One of my brothers was still breathing and we tried to save him. We called the police and they took him to the hospital. But just minutes later we received a call saying that he didn’t sur